Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book II, Chapter III, Sec. 2
Context: Bricks will be most serviceable if made two years before using; for they cannot dry thoroughly in less time. When fresh undried bricks are used in a wall, the stucco covering stiffens and hardens into a permanent mass, but the bricks settle and... the motion caused by their shrinking prevents them from adhering to it, and they are separated from their union with it.... at Utica in constructing walls they use brick only if it is dry and made five years previously, and approved as such by the authority of a magistrate.
“A clear thought, a pure affection, a resolute act of a virtuous will, have a dignity of quite another kind, and far higher than accumulations of brick and granite and plaster and stucco, however cunningly put together.”
Self-Culture (1838)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
William Ellery Channing 71
United States Unitarian clergyman 1780–1842Related quotes
“There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.”
Letter to Edward Dowse (19 April 1803)
1800s, First Presidential Administration (1801–1805)
“Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.”
“We have a patient. We put him in a plaster cast.”
Papadopoulos (1968:171), cited in: Emmi Mikedakis " Manipulating Language- Metaphors in the Political Discourse of Georgios Papadopoulos (1967-1973) http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/jspui/bitstream/2328/25577/1/Emmi%20Mikedakis%20.pdf]." In: E. Close, M. Tsianikas and G. Frazis (Eds.) Greek Research in Australia- Proceedings of the [3rd] Annual Conference of Greek Studies, Flinders University, 23-24 June 2000. Flinders University Department of Languages – Modern Greek- Adelaide, p. 76-86
With the patient Papadopoulos was referring to Greece
Context: We have a patient. We put him in a plaster cast. We try to see whether he could walk without the cast. We break open the first cast, and we eventually put the new one on, where it is needed. […] Let us pray that he will not need a plaster cast again. If he needs it, then we shall put it on him. And the only thing that I can promise you, is to invite you also to see the leg without a plaster cast!
Entry (1959)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 56.
Metaphysics, again, is the Dynamics of Thought; treats of the primary Powers of Thought; occupies itself with the mere Soul of the Science of Thinking. Metaphysical ideas stand related to one another, like thoughts without words. Men often wondered at the stubborn Incompletibility of these two Sciences; each followed its own business by itself; there was a want everywhere, nothing would suit rightly with either. From the very first, attempts were made to unite them, as everything about them indicated relationship; but every attempt failed; the one or the other Science still suffered in these attempts, and lost its essential character. We had to abide by metaphysical Logic, and logical Metaphysic, but neither of them was as it should be.
Pupils at Sais (1799)
From 1980s onwards, Critical Path (1981)
Context: Humans have always unknowingly affected all Universe by every act and thought they articulate or even consider.... Realistic, comprehensively responsible, omni-system-considerate, unselfish thinking on the part of humans does absolutely affect human destiny.
2014, Address to the United Nations (September 2014)